Friday, 18 April 2014
Depart. couldn't waive off security covering VAT dues merely on basis of sympathy
CIT(A) had rightly admitted additional evidences after giving hearing opportunity to parties: HC
Companies with similar functionality couldn't be excluded from comparable list because it had lower
HC denied rebate of duty on exports as purchases were made by assessee under fake invoices
Matter initiated under repealed MRTP Act, Continued under Competition Act; steel producers gets scot
Ministry issues consolidated FDI policy; effective from April 17, 2014
Iran Oil Exports Fall For First Time In Five Months
Iran's crude oil exports fell for the first time in five months in March, and are slated to drop further in April, moving closer to the levels stipulated by November's temporary nuclear deal that eased some sanctions on Tehran, Reuters reported on April 17
Under the agreement reached in Geneva, Iran's oil exports were to remain at an average 1 million barrels per day (bpd) for the six months to July 20, but since the signing last year, shipments to Asia alone had topped that mark until this month.
The drop in crude exports to just over 1 million bpd in March and to 953,000 bpd for April, according to ship loading data seen by Reuters, reduces pressure on Tehran ahead of talks next month to finalise an end to the decade-old nuclear dispute.
The drops have come mainly because Japan did not take any cargoes in March and South Korea is not scheduled to take any shipments in April, according to the tanker data.
"When the Iranian exports increased, the market noticed so I'm not surprised that they might try to cut back some in the upcoming period," IHS oil consultant Victor Shum said.
"As far as China is concerned, the offtake is a bit higher, but it goes up and down, so on average, for the year, China will keep it under the target," he said.
Iran's biggest customer China will increase loadings this month to 552,000 bpd, about a third higher than a year ago, after a decline in March to 458,000 bpd.
Chinese buyers will account for almost 60 percent of oil shipped by tanker from Iran in April.
Crude going to India, Tehran's No.2 customer, surged nearly 43 percent in the first quarter of 2014, bringing a warning from the United States that it needed to hold the shipments closer to end-2013 levels of 195,000 bpd.
India is scheduled to load in April about 145,000 bpd of Iranian crude, down from imports of 412,000 bpd in January.
It's not immediately clear if the reductions in Japan, India and South Korea are a response to pressure to hold to the terms of the temporary nuclear agreement, or if they are related to a seasonal drop in imports because of refinery maintenance.
Tehran denies that its atomic energy programme is a front for developing nuclear weapons, and says it seeks only electricity from its enrichment of uranium.
In the second half of the last decade Iran was pumping around 4 million bpd, but tough international sanctions the past two years have slashed the country's oil production and exports.
The temporary deal between Iran and world powers, struck in November and implemented on Jan. 20, also freed up $4.2 billion in back oil payments to Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
Negotiators from Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as P5+1, will begin their next round of talks in the Austrian capital on May 13.
DECLINING SHIPMENTS
Seasonal maintenance plans may explain why Japan and South Korea area are loading less oil from Iran, Shum said.
"Q1 may be still part of the winter season and there is a bit of a peak in demand, but in Q2 typically the crude demand starts to come down with the spring maintenance," he said.
Buyers from Japan may also have held off from loadings amid uncertainty over whether Tokyo would roll over a sovereign insurance scheme to cover oil shipments after commercial insurers complied with an EU ban on coverage for Iranian oil.
Iran's oil exports, including condensate, totalled 1.25 million bpd in March, down 19 percent from 1.55 million bpd in February. They are set to fall almost 5 percent further in April to 1.19 million bpd, according to the loading data.
Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency had pegged Iran's crude shipments in February at 1.65 million bpd - including condensate - the highest since June 2012.
Iran's deputy oil minister for international trade said on Monday that the Islamic republic's oil exports had held at around 1 million bpd for the last six months.
South Korea loaded 129,000 bpd last month compared with 217,000 bpd in February and will load no crude during April, according to the tanker data obtained by Reuters.
Japan, the other of Iran's four biggest buyers, didn't load crude in March, but Japanese tankers are scheduled to pick up 146,000 bpd this month, compared with 119,000 bpd in February.
Turkey is the other main destination for loadings in March and April. Since sanctions were imposed in 2012, more than halving Iran's oil sales, China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey have bought nearly all of Tehran's crude.
Source:- zawya.com
16.57 Lakh Tonne Of Wheat Arrive In Haryana
Over 16.57 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of wheat has so far arrived in Haryana during the current procurement season.
Stating this here today, a spokesman of the Food and Supplies Department said while the government agencies have procured 16,57,354 MT of wheat, traders had purchased 113 MT of the foodgrain.
He said the Food and Supplies Department has purchased the highest 5.16 lakh MT of wheat, while HAFED had bought 5.14 lakh MT of the grain.
Other agencies that procured wheat are: Haryana Agro Industries Corporation (1.26 lakh MT), Haryana Warehousing Corporation (1.90 lakh MT), CONFED (36,244 MT) and Food Corporation of India (2.72 lakh MT).
He said Karnal district is leading in the wheat arrival with about 2.80 lakh MT of the grain arriving in the mandis, followed by Kaithal with 2.34 lakh MT.
Source:- newindianexpress.com
No. waiver of pre-deposit requirement on merits of case unless undue hardship was caused to assessee
Sec. 80P deductions to be denied only to Co-op. banks and not Co-op. societies after CBDT's clarific
Delay In Fixing Sugar Export Subsidy Hitting Business: Indian Sugar Mills Association
The government's delay in fixing the export subsidy on raw sugar for the April-May period is adversely affecting shipments contracted earlier, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said today.
The government had announced a subsidy of Rs 3,300 per tonne on raw sugar exports on February 28 to help the cash-starved industry to clear cane arrears and improve their financial situation. It also decided to review the subsidy amount, depending on the rupee-dollar exchange rate.
According to ISMA, 1.45 million tonnes of sugar in both raw and refined form are estimated to have been exported in the first six months of the current marketing year, which started in October. Of this, 3,50,000 tonnes of sugar were exported last month, the first month of the subsidy.
"However, government is yet to announce the incentive for raw sugar production and exports for April and May. The delay in announcement of incentive rate is adversely impacting the physical shipments of sugar exports already contracted," ISMA said in a statement.
As much as 4,00,000 tonnes of sugar are likely to be exported in April and May. Some shipments have already been dispatched and are in transit.
ISMA said the market expects the subsidy to be unchanged at Rs 3,300 per tonne.
The country's sugar output declined 4% to 23.1 million tonnes till April 15 of the 2013-14 marketing year from 24.15 million tonnes in the same period last year.
Production declined in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, the top two producing states, while output in Karnataka was at a record following good rains.
Source:- articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Essar Oil Increases Iran Oil Imports 6-Fold: Report
Indian private refiner Essar Oil imported six times more crude oil from the Islamic Republic in March 2014 compared to March 2013 following a jump in shipment volumes in the final quarter of the period, a report says.
Iran’s top Indian client shipped in about 231,100 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude in March 2014. The figure marked a growth of about 90 percent from February, and six times more than the volume in March 2013. The number was also the highest monthly shipment since at least January 2011, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The higher volumes in the January-March 2014 quarter were apparently facilitated by the November 2013 interim deal between the Islamic Republic and six major world powers over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, France, Britain, Russia, China - plus Germany reached an interim deal on November 24, 2013, in the Swiss city of Geneva to set the stage for the full settlement of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program. The deal took effect on January 20.
Under the Geneva deal, the six countries agreed to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period. It was also agreed that no nuclear-related sanctions would be imposed on the Islamic Republic within the same time frame.
Essar shipped in about 105,700 bpd from Iran in the year to March 31. The Indian refiner lifted about 31 percent more oil than the contracted 80,000 bpd in the last fiscal year on the basis of actual loading from Iran.
Iran accounted for about a third of Essar’s total crude oil imports of about 3.28 million bpd in the last fiscal year, compared with 27.6 percent the year before.India is among Asia’s major importers of energy, and relies on the Islamic Republic to meet a portion of its energy requirements.
Source:- presstv.ir
Cotton Exports Hit As China Shifts Policy
Raw cotton exports are expected to plummet around 20 per cent in the next crop year, with demand from China fading, as Beijing unwinds a controversial stockpiling scheme.
That would be greater than the nearly six per cent drop touted for this year, with the change in Chinese policy coming on top of rising cotton consumption in India and a spurt in exports of finished yarn, industry officials said.
Cotton markets around the world have been watching closely, as China abandons a stockpiling scheme under, which it has amassed more than 10 million tonnes (mt) of the fibre - around 60 per cent of global cotton inventories.
The policy had driven up import demand by removing cotton from the domestic market and pushing up local prices.
"Cotton exports have been falling year-on-year and we will not be able to export more than 7-7.5 million bales in 2014-15" said M B Lal, managing director of Shail Exports and former chairman of the Cotton Corporation of India. The country's cotton year runs from October to September.
China, the world's largest cotton importer, accounts for more than 60 per cent of total raw cotton exports from India. The rest goes to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam.
India, the world's no2 producer and exporter of cotton, has shipped a total of around 8.2-8.5 million bales so far in 2013-14, expected to grow to around 9.2-9.5 million bales by September, industry officials said. Due to harvest cycles, the vast majority of exports typically occur in the first half of the Indian crop year.
The nation exported 10.1 million bales in the 2012-13 year, falling from 12.9 million bales the year before.
China in February imported 147,317 tonnes of cotton from India, down 20 per cent from the previous month. Beijing in January announced it would scrap cotton stockpiling, instead trialling direct subsidies for farmers.
"Chinese buyers have significantly reduced their buying from India in the past two months, as they are waiting for more clarity on the cotton policy in their home country," said Rahul Jitendra Shah, managing director of Acme International.
In a bid to speed up stockpile sales, China from the start of this month lowered the state sale floor price.
Meanwhile, consumption of raw cotton by Indian mills has climbed to 25.8 million bales in 2013-14 from 25 million bales a year ago due to rising demand from textile makers as the global economy shows signs of picking up.
"Consumption by cotton in mills is increasing sharply in India, as many new spinning units are coming up to meet rising demand from textile makers," said Arun Kumar Dalal, a cotton trader from Ahmedabad.
"In the next crop year, mills' consumption is expected to touch 30 million bales." In 2011-12, demand from mills totalled 22.3 million bales.
And Indian shipments of yarn, a value-added product used by textile mills, are likely to rise by around 10 per cent in the financial year 2013-14, market participants said, further crimping overseas demand for raw cotton. Some Chinese buyers have stepped up yarn purchases to avoid higher taxes on raw cotton imports.
Source:- business-standard.com